{"id":426303,"date":"2011-05-18T22:27:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-18T22:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/18\/letoya-mangezi-returns-to-the-screen-after-a-tough-initiation\/"},"modified":"2011-05-18T22:27:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-18T22:27:20","slug":"letoya-mangezi-returns-to-the-screen-after-a-tough-initiation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/18\/letoya-mangezi-returns-to-the-screen-after-a-tough-initiation\/","title":{"rendered":"Letoya Mangezi returns to the screen after a tough initiation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/p>\n

Letoya Mangezi<\/p>\n

\n26-year-old Mangezi, whom many will remember as Letoya Makhene, co-host of season two of South Africa\u2019s Idols with Colin Moss in 2003, was on her way to becoming one of the entertainment industry\u2019s \u201cit\u201d girls when she put her cultural beliefs ahead of her blossoming career.<\/p>\n

She quit Idols and her fledgling music career took a back seat. Most dishearteningly, she said, her friends \u201cdisappeared\u201d when she had to attend initiation school for eight months as an ithwasa (trainee sangoma).<\/p>\n

But, after two months of training, she began singing again at corporate gigs and recently landed a role on SABC3 soapie Isidingo, as Ayanda Diale, of the Sibeko family. Her appearance in the show will be on June 14.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, after shooting her scenes for the day, Mangezi spoke of how she hadn\u2019t missed the spotlight.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met a wonderful man, we got married and had three babies. I gave birth to my last-born son Tamuda three months ago,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Husband Privilege Mangezi was her closest friend during her months of initiation as a sangoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were sometimes allowed visitors at the initiation school, in Springs, on the East Rand, I realised that everyone who was supposedly my friend disappeared,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Priv always came through, so it was so natural for us to fall in love.\u201d She said the initiation process was tough, and scary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never saw home, but it wasn\u2019t a foreign experience in the sense that I come from a rooted family that practises our culture. It became me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mangezi said she was fortunate that her amadlozi (ancestors) let her to return to doing \u201cwhat I\u2019m passionate about\u201d. Her character in Isidingo, Ayanda, loses her father in the anti-apartheid struggle and is taken in by the Sibeko family.<\/p>\n

She has to pick up the pieces of her life after drugs wreck her music career.<\/p>\n

Mangezi, clad in black skinny jeans, black high-heeled boots (which don\u2019t compensate for her petite frame), a tank top and grey cardigan had her dreadlocks tied up and was still wearing make-up.<\/p>\n

Unlike most stars, she was refreshingly forthcoming, declining only to give her husband\u2019s occupation.<\/p>\n

Mangezi is now also working on a comeback album, which is tentatively set for release at the end of the year, with her musician and producer father, Blondie Mokhene
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Do you have a story\/gist for publication? Please email it to story@nigeriafilms.com<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Continued here:
\nLetoya Mangezi returns to the screen after a tough initiation<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letoya Mangezi 26-year-old Mangezi, whom many will remember as Letoya Makhene, co-host of season two of South Africa\u2019s Idols with Colin Moss in 2003, was on her way to becoming one of the entertainment industry\u2019s \u201cit\u201d girls when she put her cultural beliefs ahead of her blossoming career. 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